I’ve been on a lot of Flash-only sites lately, and I continue to be annoyed at the experience. After typing the URL, I get “Please Wait…” or the even-less-polite “Loading content.” Now, I haven’t even seen a logo or anything yet, so I have no idea if the wait will be worth my while — […]

There’s a substantial disconnect when businesses outsource their Web projects. Here’s the problem: in general, the agency is oriented towards discrete projects (y’know, where there’s a start and a finish), while any business is ongoing and ever-shifting. Maybe for initial designs and site redesigns this works, but quality Web sites are more organic than that […]

Okay, geeky types, here’s a shot across the bow: you all need to do better at communicating technology to your clients in terms they can understand.
There’s a long history in Information Technology of the “Wizard of Oz” mentality — you know, make ‘em think this stuff is incredibly complex and that only I, the Great […]

Hangin’ out in cyberspace as I do, a lot of my communications with clients and partners are via e-mail, phone and IM. And while that works fairly well, I was reminded recently of the importance of face-to-face communication.
Recently, I traveled to the Midwest to visit several of my clients there, one of whom I had […]

OK, I’m a reformed perfectionist, and there are times I still obsess over the smallest details. (In my own defense, my clients like that I fix their typos for them, so maybe obsession has a place…) But I love that the Web is a fluid medium, where changes are possible at any time, and that […]

I’ve got a client who decided to start small, with a very basic site (something I often recommend for small businesses — get your feet wet, find out what works, limit your investment risk). But now that it’s time to launch, they’re balking.
We’re still speaking, and the relationship is solid enough, but for whatever reason, […]

I’m starting work on a small site — home page and five subpages — but the Web server has hundreds of files on it. Unused pages, drafts from who knows when, navigation graphics from previous versions, and who knows what else… I’ve dealt a lot in site management, including archiving strategies and site organization, so […]

…from a long hiatus, during which a difficult redesign, as well as a major application “crash,” sapped any energy I might have had for blogging. Lotsa changes around here, so stay tuned.

I’m just finishing up Web work on a symposium that illustrates all that’s wrong with unplanned development: the people in charge kept coming up with new ideas after we’d started, and they kinda liked waiting until work was done on something before starting to think about it. So I (and others) would work to on […]

I can tell already that this is going to be a multi-post rant, because I’m burning up. I’m working to configure an application for our Alumni Web Community (a “portal,” if you’ll excuse the buzzword). The fine folks at BSR Advance, who are now no longer on my Christmas card list, have made a classic […]